Snipers emerge from the brush at Camp Penldeton during a operational demonstration for the 50th commemorative reunion of Marine Corps reconnaissance forces and supporting helicopter crews who served in Vietnam during the period from 1965 through 1971 on Thursday.

Background

CAMP PENDLETON – Conrad Moreno was never a chatty guy. In the 1960s his chill attitude made him cool.

But for nearly 50 years after serving as a Force Recon Marine in Vietnam, that chill turned to stoic silence masking the pain of the war. Only in the past three years has he begun to embrace what happened in Vietnam.

But on Thursday, Moreno, 69, a Purple Heart veteran from Wildomar, became a different man. He was outgoing. Initiating conversations with people he didn’t know. Swapping war stories.

“The guy I married and the guy who came back from Vietnam were two different men,” said Maggie Moreno, Conrad’s wife of 47 years. “This is the first time I’ve seen him become more of the guy I married.”

Moreno, who served as a Force Recon sergeant in 1968, was among hundreds participating in Recon 50 – the 50th commemorative reunion of Marine Corps reconnaissance forces and supporting helicopter crews serving in Vietnam from 1965 through 1971.

Recon Marine snipers – now in the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion – demonstrated a live raid. A memorial concluded the event with a reading of the names of those killed in Vietnam.

“It’s a huge honor to have these veterans here and give the Marines (from the battalion) a chance to demonstrate their pride in what they do and honor the legacy of what the Marines in Vietnam did,” said Lt. Col. George Hasseltine, commander of the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion. “We’ve got to constantly look at the next battle, but how we got here was the founding legacy of these gentlemen.”

Reconnaissance Marines were known to be swift, silent and deadly. About 6,000 served in Vietnam.

CH-46 helicopters, fondly known as “Battle Phrogs,” covered by Cobra gunships dropped the Marines into enemy territory, where they stalked through jungles and secured intelligence for infantry commanders. They operated in seven- and eight-man teams and could call in artillery fire and airstrikes.

Retired Lt. Gen. Bernard “Mick” Trainor commanded the 1st Marine Reconnaissance Battalion from 1970 to 1971. He never lost a Marine.

“The safest guys in the world were the men in the recon teams,” said Trainor, 87.

Teams were dropped off and identified rally points along their planned routes. Most teams would scout a 5-square-mile area for five days looking for signs of the enemy – shell casings, pieces of clothing or footprints.

They would use radios to communicate. If everything went as planned, they would signal Phrog pilots with mirrors when they reached their locations. If the helicopters couldn’t land, crew chiefs would drop a rope to clip on a harness and the Marines would be hoisted up.

But John Baker, 67, who was a Force Recon captain, remembers missions that weren’t that smooth. The Anaheim Hills man was 19 when he led a platoon of Marines through the jungles west of DaNang in March 1970.

It was about 4:30 a.m. and he said he woke up with a creepy feeling. He and his Marines were sleeping. They packed out in 10 minutes.

“I thought we were clear and then all of a sudden they opened up on us,” he said. “We headed up the hill as fast as we could. I had everyone who passed me give me a grenade. As they went on, I put up a wall of fire. I immediately called to get a Phrog out. But there was a heavy canopy and the bird couldn’t get down but could drop its tailgate.”

Baker hustled his Marines into the copter while the two pilots held steady. Aboard, he checked his men. There was one injury – a Marine had lost his pinky.

“I still remember the call sign, it was ‘Cherry Jam,’” Baker said. “That helicopter took 27 hits. I wrote those pilots up for a Distinguished Flying Cross. To hold that bird steady took nerves of steel.”

“These guys here may not look like the tough, young people they were almost half a century ago, but these are the guys who put their lives on the line,” he said. “We’ve all become a band of brothers who served and experienced the same thing. That’s emotional.”

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